Discover a bit of our history...

What is the THINkSHELL project?

The THINkSHELL project encourages and accompanies expeditions in the field of structural engineering. It promotes an integrated vision of research, education and fabrication which embraces the whole design process from the very first sketches to the construction of full scale buildings, from material/assembly testings to the development of original numerical tools. The team gathered around the development of the first prototypes of elastic gridshells in composite materials. Nowadays, it combines expertise in the field of architecture, material science, structural engineering, historical buildings, architectural geometry and numerical fabrication.

Who is involved in the THINkSHELL project ?

The THINkSHELL project was initiated by members of the laboratoire Navier. It is a mixed research unit of École des Ponts ParisTech, IFSTTAR and the CNRS who brings together more than 170 people working on the mechanics and physics of materials, structures and geomaterials. Its research covers civil engineering, the environment and sustainable development, energy and transport. The research approaches are theoretical, numerical as well as experimental.

THINkSHELL is very close to the “Architectured Materials and Structures” team of the laboratoire Navier who tackles research in structural engineering and materials mechanics with applications associated with the eco-design of optimum complex architectures and with the diagnosis, reinforcement, repair and rehabilitation of structures.

Most projects shown on this website benefit from the financial and technical supports of the laboratoire Navier and, for the workshops, from the support of the Civil and Structural Engineering Department of the Ecole des Ponts ParisTech.

The THINkSHELL project is now developing beyond the laboratoire Navier with fruitful collaborations with partners lab:

• the Laboratoire d’Analyse et de Mathématiques Appliquées (LAMA) and especially the Geometry and Curvature group, led by Laurent Hauswirth,
• the Laboratoire d’Informatique Gaspard Monge (LIGM) and especially the IMAGINE group, led by Renaud Marlet,
• the laboratoire Geometrie et Structure pour l’Architecture (GSA) from the School of Architecture Paris-Malaquais, led by Maurizio Brocato,
• but also the form-finding lab at Princeton University, the Block Research Group at ETH Zürich, etc

and many industrial partners: Arcora, Serge Ferrari, HAL Robotics, Lafarge, Simonin, Solutions Composites, T/E/S/S Ateliers d’Ingénierie, VIRY, Würth France, etc.

How to visit us?

THINkSHELL’s experiments are generally hosted by the École des Ponts ParisTech, so that there are always prototypes to show on the campus. It is located 30 minutes from the center of Paris and 20 minutes from Chessy Marne-la-Vallée high-speed train station. You can access by the RER A light railway ( Line A, station Noisy – Champs, exit 3 – Cité Descartes) or by the A4 motorway. Find all detail on here.